I walked towards the top of the mountain, deep into the woods, directly behind Garp-san. He told me that his two grandsons were living up there, being raised by an old friend, because he as a vice-admiral could not take care of them. I did hear some things about his grandsons before, because in his opinion I was one of the few people in Headquarters that would really listen to him and not only pretend to. Maybe it was because of my quiet nature or because I knew Garp-san for a very long time. I once heard him tell Sengoku-san that I would be like another grandchild to him. I was honored by this thoughts of his, but I did not think the same.
A small wooden house came into sight. I noticed the steam coming out of the chimney, smelling like grilled boar. Without knocking Garp-san went into the small house. I heard three different male child voices talk about becoming great pirate captains. Then a clear 'BAM' thrice as Garp-san's fist hit three heads and shortly after a fourth one.
"You talking of becoming pirates again! Didn't I tell you to become great and strong marine soldiers!"
It seemed that those children did not want to become a part of the marine because they struggled and insulted Garp-san. He growled and made a sign towards me standing outside the house and not in sight of the ones in it.
"You brought someone with you, Garp-san?" came the smoky voice of a woman.
He sighed and sat down, making way for me to come in. I closed the door before I sat to the left of Garp-san.
"The two black-haired ones are my grandsons Ace and Luffy. The third one seems to be a friend of those two." he told me gesturing towards the three children.
The orange-haired woman seemed to be Dadan, Garp-san's friend who was taking care of the children. Garp-san had told me everything about her beforehand. Now she looked at me, anger twisting her face.
"Don't tell me to take care of her, too!" she screamed at Garp-san.
The three boys continued their meal from before observing the whole situation and especially me.
Garp-san only shook his head, "No, she is fine for herself. I only wanted Saya to meet Ace and Luffy and teach them something right."
He looked towards me.
"I am really hungry, aren't you?"
I slightly bowed my head. Even in HQ Garp-san would sometimes come to eat together with me. He reached out to the huge – but already half eaten – grilled boar in front of the young boys. Within one second the three had taken the grilled boar to themselves.
Dadan sighed and said "They hunted and killed this big thing alone. And they wouldn't let us take one bite."
Garp-san also sighed and raised himself out of his sitting position to take the meat from the boys. I gently put my hand onto his left arm and looked into his eyes.
"I think it is alright for them to keep their meat to themselves. If you allow, I will go hunting for dinner."
Garp-san nodded and sat down again, a smile forming on his face. I slightly bowed to everyone ignoring the stares from both the bandits and the three boys and left the small house walking into the already dark woods.
A few minutes later when I approached the house again with my prey put over my small shoulders, I heard a discussion rising inside the house. I went in and put my prey down on the floor, taking my knife out to make it ready to be grilled over the fire. Ignoring the sudden silence and things falling onto the floor because of surprise I sliced open the belly of the big black wolf.
Garp-san's laughter broke through the silence. "What a wonderful prey you got. And so big." he said in between laughter.
"B-but... how?" I raised my head to look at one of the boys whom I identified as Ace.
I finished cutting the big wolf into better sizes and taking his pelt off, which had a beautiful black tone and put the cutout meat over the fire. Garp-san had stopped his laughing and wiped tears of joy from his eyes. I gave him the pelt and he looked over it, satisfied.
"A wonderful color. You chose good. We will give it to someone who can make a cloak for you out of it. You deserve it."
I bowed my head towards Garp-san and turned back towards the fire and turned the pieces of meat over. Garp-san put the pelt away.
"The meat is ready." I said giving out the pieces of meat to the bandits but beforehand putting some special salt over them. At last I gave one bigger piece to Garp-san and took the last one for myself.
"Yummy..." came from different parts of the room.
"Delicious as ever, Saya." Garp-san nodded towards me with a satisfied glance.
"Thank you, Garp-san." After everyone had finished their part I stood up and looked at Garp-san. He also stood and wiped his mouth with a tissue I gave him. Nodding towards the bandits and shooting a warning glare towards the three boys he took the wolf pelt and gave me the bags we carried up here.
"We are going to the village, we will be back tomorrow morning." Then we left the small house and went back to the small village on the coast where we had booked rooms to sleep in.